There’s a myth that suggests if the Clustering Factor (CF) of an index is greater than a certain ratio when compared to the number of rows in the table, the CF is poor and an index rebuild would be beneficial.

The slight problem with this advice is that the CF actually measures how well aligned the order of the column values are in the table as compared to the order of the index entries in the index. Generally, a table in which the column values are ordered in a similar manner to the index will have a CF closer to the number of blocks in the table. A table in which the column values are ordered in a random manner when compared to the index will have a CF closer to the number of rows in the table.

An index rebuild doesn’t change the ordering of the index row entries and an index rebuild has no impact on the table so therefore the comparative ordering of both remains unchanged. Therefore the CF of an index will be identical after the rebuild as it was before.

Well actually, there is one slight exception to this rule. Reverse Key Indexes.

Generally, rows with monotonically increasing column values are physically inserted in the order of the monotonically increasing columns. This may not be the case however with tables in ASSM tablespaces or tables with multiple freelists or freelist groups as concurrent inserts will be directed to differing blocks. In these cases we may actually have data that is quite well clustered but may have quite poor CF values due to the manner in which the CF is calculated.

Assuming a Non-ASSM, single freelist/freelist group table, the CF of monotonically increasing indexed values would ordinarily be quite good. As a non-reverse index must also have its values in the monotonically column order, the CF of the index is likely to be nice and low.

However, if you were to rebuild the index as a Reverse Key Index, the index values get reversed and “randomly” redistributed within the index structure, totally changing the order of the index entries within the index. As a result, the index values are no longer aligned with those of the table and the CF is likely to now be quite appalling.

Rebuilding an index generally has no impact on the CF as the index row values retain the same logically order. Rebuilding an index to be reverse (or visa-versa) is the exception to the rule as it will physically (and logically) change the index row order.

A Reverse Key Index is likely therefore to have a much worse CF than it’s non-reverse equivalent.

A Reverse Key Index will be ignored for range predicates (as already discussed in Part I) so a poor CF may not have an impact. However, as also discussed, index range scans are still viable in some scenarios so an increased CF may impact execution plans detrimentally.